How secure is Outlook?

Wynona · Nov 28, 2021

jvickers said:
The majority of spam emails and clickbaits go to my Junk Email folder in both Outlook accounts I have on my Outlook. I don't recall ever setting anything up that was special on my Outlook, either. I might have trained it over the years, though. I do use the "block domain name" feature when I get something that I know shouldn't be coming to me. That's a handy feature to use. As with anything, though, I think Outlook needs a certain amount of training. @Wynona has a nice screenshot, in message #5, of the options you can use to block spam.

Replacement for Post #5 Here is the screenshot with my email addy covered up:

Dru2 · Nov 28, 2021

dbartenstein said:
At work we use Outlook and for personal use I have Gmail. My Gmail spam box usually has 1 or 2 items a week. My work Outlook Junk folder usually has 80-100. I suspect the culprit there though is LinkedIn because that would be the only place I have used the work address outside of legitimate software vendors.

As I'm fond of saying someone will always post a worst case when others are trying to introduce a more realistic reality.

Here you have to legitimately ask why is your "work place" email getting more spam than your "personal home account"? Think

BunnyJ · Nov 28, 2021

Dru2 said:
As I'm fond of saying someone will always post a worst case when others are trying to introduce a more realistic reality.

Here you have to legitimately ask why is your "work place" email getting more spam than your "personal home account"? Think

Kind of reminds me of the Colonial Pipeline hack/ransomware breach., That was most likely cause by an outdated password. Easy to prevent but hey.. who updates their passwords?

Dru2 · Nov 28, 2021

BunnyJ said:
Kind of reminds me of the Colonial Pipeline hack/ransomware breach., That was most likely cause by an outdated password. Easy to prevent but hey.. who updates their passwords?

But it's Microsoft's fault for not telling them to do so. But oh, look... there's also complaints about Microsoft telling people how to use their computers

BunnyJ · Nov 28, 2021

Dru2 said:
But it's Microsoft's fault for not telling them to do so. But oh, look... there's also complaints about Microsoft telling people how to use their computers

Changing your password(s) should fall under common sense 101. Especially if it has access to a gas supply system.

jvickers · Nov 28, 2021

Dru2 said:
But it's Microsoft's fault for not telling them to do so. But oh, look... there's also complaints about Microsoft telling people how to use their computers

I love the reminders to change my passwords as I usually have other things on my mind and plate. It's a great help to me. I'm all for advice on how to use my computer in the safest way possible.

BunnyJ · Nov 28, 2021

jvickers said:
I love the reminders to change my passwords as I usually have other things on my mind and plate. It's a great help to me. I'm all for advice on how to use my computer in the safest way possible.

That's why I have that Python program to generate passwords.

BunnyJ · Nov 28, 2021

For anyone interested this Python program generates great passwords and it's easy to modify.
Feel free to use - Plus ask any questions you might have

Python:

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Name:        password1.py
# Purpose:     Creat 12 character password.
#
# Author:      Jeff F
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
import random
# ======================================================
# functions..
# ======================================================
def gen(a,b):
    return chr(random.randint(a,b))

def shuffle(str):
    l = list(str)
    random.shuffle(l)
    return  ''.join(l)

# =====================================================
# Main function.
# =====================================================
def main():
    password = ""
    for i in range(1,12):

        x = random.randint(1,4)
        if x == 1:
            password += str(gen(65,90))
        elif x == 2:
            password += str(gen(97,122))
        elif x == 3:
            password += str(random.randint(0,9))
        else:
            password += str(gen(33,38))

    pw = shuffle(password)
    print (pw)

# ====================================================
# Start of script/program
# ====================================================
if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Haydon · Nov 28, 2021

jvickers said:
I love the reminders to change my passwords as I usually have other things on my mind and plate. It's a great help to me. I'm all for advice on how to use my computer in the safest way possible.

MS does have a tick box 'Remind me to change passwords in 72 days'. I ticked off the box, but I don't get reminders,

I wish that password managers have timers to flag older passwords that are up for renewal.

jimbo45 · Nov 29, 2021

Dru2 said:
If you're getting that much spam email perhaps you should be more careful of who you give your address to?

And if you want to claim you get no spam via Google email, I'm calling foul.

Perhaps "VAR" is what you should be using !!!!!! (In Europe Top level football - the proper round ball which actually gets kicked variety uses VAR - instant replay system to see whether infringement committed or ball actually over Goal line -- as per Hawkeye in Tennis).

BTW FF (FireFox) is good at generating decent random passwords - but even with a plaintext password just adding say a non alphanumeric character before and at the end of the plaintext can cause "password crackers" and brute force attacks to take so much longer that often just doing that is enough. If you use say a "Non Latin" character e.g say the Icelandic Ð, ð, Þ or þ then most password crackers won't have a hope. Same with any other obscure characters you can find !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Haydon · Nov 29, 2021

jimbo45 said:
If you use say a "Non Latin" character e.g say the Icelandic Ð, ð, Þ or þ then most password crackers won't have a hope. Same with any other obscure characters you can find !!!

Good idea! Another idea that you can use, especially if you speak foreign languages (English is a second language for me, but I do speak 5 languages, all based on the Latin alphabet, I don't speak Icelandic) is to put together a long passphrase with words from all languages that you speak, and intersperse that with numbers and symbols. That's easy to remember and very secure.

Note that some sites do not allow (some) obscure symbols in passwords. IMHO, it is generally best to stick with the so called 95 printable ASCII characters. Some sites even prescribe the use of a subset of symbols. But all that is no problem, you can very easily produce 20+ characters long passphrases as in the previous paragraph, all easy to remember and all very secure.

barman58 · Dec 15, 2021

II have used Outlook in the past and have found it usable in a business environment, this will almost guarantee that it is under a full professional anti malware regime. One thing I would advise is always use the latest version of Outlook if you decide to go that way, as malware is constantly evolving and older Outlook versions, may no longer get updates to the engines and so could be breached by modern malware

Now for at home use I could use outlook but found this to be overkill as I would not use a lot of the functions of outlook. I decided to build my own solution

All my mail goes through a dual Provider loop, It is first tested by the filters on the German site GMX.com, that removes the basic obvious spam and scam emails and then is automatically collected by my Gmail account and goes through both the built in protection systems and is filed using my own set of rules. When convenient I personally check the contents and attachments - only attachments that I want to keep ever get downloaded into my systems, and these are further checked by Bitdefender Pro's own systems

This system does introduce a slight delay to the email process so some highly trusted email accounts are direct to Gmail, but still follow that section of the checks

Wynona · Dec 15, 2021

barman58 said:
II have used Outlook in the past and have found it usable in a business environment, this will almost guarantee that it is under a full professional anti malware regime. One thing I would advise is always use the latest version of Outlook if you decide to go that way, as malware is constantly evolving and older Outlook versions, may no longer get updates to the engines and so could be breached by modern malware

Now for at home use I could use outlook but found this to be overkill as I would not use a lot of the functions of outlook. I decided to build my own solution

I subscribe to Microsoft 365 and use Outlook for my several email accounts. As to overkill, I just use what I need and ignore the rest. I'm also on the Beta Channel for MS 365, so am always up to date.

barman58 · Dec 15, 2021

One thing that steers me away from Outlook is that I use a lot of Android hardware, and as a result I can check my mail from any of several PCs, Tablets, and At least Two Smartphones.

Wherever I am and whatever hardware I have with me, my Contacts List, Calendar, and email is available and looks the same

Wynona · Dec 15, 2021

barman58 said:
One thing that steers me away from Outlook is that I use a lot of Android hardware, and as a result I can check my mail from any of several PCs, Tablets, and At least Two Smartphones.

Wherever I am and whatever hardware I have with me, my Contacts List, Calendar, and email is available and looks the same

I believe Outlook is available on Android, but I do not want email cluttering up my cell phone. I use it for phone calls and text (which my children require) only.

Dru2 · Dec 15, 2021

@Wynona, yes Outlook 365 is available for Android :wink:

barman58 said:
One thing that steers me away from Outlook is that I use a lot of Android hardware, and as a result I can check my mail from any of several PCs, Tablets, and At least Two Smartphones.

Wherever I am and whatever hardware I have with me, my Contacts List, Calendar, and email is available and looks the same

I use it for Android on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 9. And since my email accounts use IMAP, everything is sync'd so there's no mail left on the phone unless I want it there.

My Contacts and Calander is also sync'd to my phone from the PC Outlook app, but that requires a third party paid app - CompanionLink.

TraderGary · Dec 15, 2021

Dru2 said:
@Wynona, yes Outlook 365 is available for Android

I use it for Android on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and Galaxy Note 9. And since my email accounts use IMAP, everything is sync'd so there's no mail left on the phone unless I want it there.

My Contacts and Calander is also sync'd to my phone from the PC Outlook app, but that requires a third party paid app - CompanionLink.

I too subscribe to Microsoft 365 and use Outlook on all my computers and phones. Everything stays nicely synchronized so my phone remains clean. For me, having access to my email on my phone is of immense value and convenience.